Shuttle XPC SZ170R8 V2: Small but Powerful

Compact, efficient and incredibly powerful if you spring for the right parts, the Shuttle XPS SZ170R8 V2 has a lot going for it. The small form factor of the motherboard does not take away from its power. Even better is its capability as a portable machine.

SGCafe.com

Student Council Presidents are usually those student leaders who are well-organized and have natural leadership skills. There are a lot of anime characters who have the traits to become an excellent Student Council President, so Charapedia asked which characters would make the best one. 10,000 people (46.2% male, 53.7% female) all voted for a total of...

About VR-Zone

Seems like hardware enthusiasts and consumers will have something to look forward to this week, thanks to a recent announcement made by Western Digital. Apparently, the world's largest hard disk manufacturer has released two new products today: a high-capacity SATA hard disk designed for 24/7 operation, as well as a new WD Photos app which is compatible with both Android and iOS-powered devices.

With our digital files getting larger and larger with each passing day, it should be of no surprise that the race to develop storage devices with larger capacities capable of coping with the blazing rate consumers amass large amounts of digital content is one that is never ending. And just when we all thought that 2TB is the maximum amount of data manufacturers could attempt to cram into a desktop hard disk with existing technology, out comes Western Digital with 2.5TB and 3TB versions of its AV-GP SATA hard drives designed for 24/7 multimedia use.

According to the official press release issued by Western Digital, the new 2.5TB and 3TB variants of its AV-GP line of hard disks feature the company's GreenPower energy saving technology for lower power consumption and boasts an MTBF rating of one million hours. However, these high-capacity hard disks come with a catch: apparently, virtually all existing 32-bit versions of the Windows operating system do not support booting off a hard disk with capacities greater than 2.19TB, and that includes the 32-bit versions of recent operating systems such as Windows Vista and Windows. In addition, Western Digital has also claimed that users of the 64-bit version of Windows 7 will need to update their OS with the SP1 patch in order to "achieve full functionality" with its 2.5TB and 3TB hard disks.

However, if the user does not intend to make use of Western Digital's high-capacity hard disks as boot devices, the good news is that every Windows operating system (save for Windows XP) supports the use of such hard disks as secondary storage devices.

Last but not least, Western Digital has also announced the availability of the latest version of its WD Photos photo viewer app, which is now available for both Android and iOS-powered devices. Designed to be used in conjunction with the company's own WD TV line of media players, the app allows users to create content on their Android or iOS-powered devices and send it remotely to a WD TV media player for viewing. In addition, Western Digital claims that the app also allows for remote access to content stored the WD TV media player, among many other features such as support for posting photos directly to Facebook and emailing of digital images to others.

The 2.5TB and 3TB WD AV-GP hard disks are currently available for sale from "selected retailers and resellers" at the suggested retail price of S$239 and S$269 respectively, while the WD Photos mobile application can be downloaded for free at the Apple iTunes store and the Android Market.